The Dualbender
by flamefield
Summary: What if you had a power that cannot be explained? Nini is an outcast from the Southern Water Tribe. She has been traveling around the nations, seeking for more information about her deadly secret, when a fated encounter with the Avatar and his friends occurs. ON HIATUS TILL CHRISTMAS
1. Prologue

SIX YEARS BEFORE "THE BOY IN THE ICEBERG" EPISODE...

"Come back here!"

My little brother, Kuruk, laughed as he rode an otter penguin down the hill, a bag of sea prunes clutched in one of his mittens. One of the older woman ran as fast as she could after him, shouting 'thief' and what not, before throwing her hands in the hair and retreating.

I sighed, putting down my small basket of cloth next to our hut. "I'll go get him, Auntie."

"Thank you, Nini." Auntie smiled as she put down her basket next to mine. "It's time for dinner anyhow." I nodded and started off in the direction Kuruk was going.

Not many people were at the village at this point in the day. All the men, including Uncle, had gone out hunting turtle seals. To my surprise, Katara was sitting outside her hut, drawing pictures in the snow. It had been days since I last saw her.

"Hi Katara!" I said in an attempt to be friendly. She looked up briefly before going back to circling her stick around. "Hi Nini." She mumbled quietly back.

"Do you wanna help me get Kuruk? He stole sweets again." I rolled my eyes. "We could go penguin sledding after him!"

But Katara stood up and walked back inside her hut, hiding her expression. I shrugged and turned towards the big hill. She was still feeling sad about her mom, probably. It hasn't even been a year for her.

I didn't feel anything about my mom and dad's death. According to Auntie both had died at sea when I was 4 and Kuruk was not even a week old. Apparently Mom was sick and the tribe didn't have the medicine to cure her, so they set out for the Earth Kingdom and didn't come back. I only remember my Mom clearly though. She was really pretty, with green-blue eyes, and she gave me small carved ice totems of different animals all the time.

I found Kuruk not too far from the village, stuffing his face. I chuckled and concentrated on the snow underneath him, lowering my hands down.

He yelped in surprise when he suddenly sunk in the snow, trapping him from the waist down.

"Nini!" He shouted, turning red, waving his arms around. "Let me out! Let me out!" I laughed and pushed the snow up, grabbing the bag from him. "Kuruk, you can't steal, remember? Auntie has a surprise for us anyway."

He pushed his lip out in a pout. "Fine."

"Let's go." I said, walking towards the village again. Even though I was only eight years old, I knew that to show my waterbending to anyone else besides Kuruk could mean that I would be taken away like the other waterbenders. And even though Kuruk was four, he was wise and knew better than to tell anyone. Auntie and Uncle had made sure that no one else knew about my secret since I have lived there. They had drilled it into me every night - no one was to know I was a waterbender-in-training

Kuruk suddenly screamed behind me. I spun around to see a gigantic arctic hippo charging towards us at full speed.

There was no time to think. I shouted "Run Kuruk!" and grabbed his hand, starting to sprint to the safety of the village. As we ran we could hear the beast's primal roars. We were almost there when Kuruk suddenly slipped on some ice.

"Nini!" He screamed. On instinct I turned around and stepped in front of him to face the beast. I raised my hands...


	2. Chapter 1

SIX YEARS LATER...(Before "The Deserter" Book One)

"Again." Jeong-jeong glared at me. The light of the candles surrounding me flickered maliciously on the straw walls of the hut. Although it was dark, I could sense his face twitching in frustration at the other rebels around me. Some of them in the back had been fooling around again. He looked at all of us. "Unless you can do this excercise right, your enemy will strike you down where you stand! Do it again."

I slowly took a breath in, building the energy into one ball inside my chest. I concentrated before exhaling, my mind being crystal-clear. Like a seeing-eye glass.*

Almost immediatly the three 'men' in the back row dissolved into giggles. I opened my eyes and scowled in disgust. We're learning an important technique here that could save our lives and these...boys are making fun of it?

Jeong-jeong shared my disapproval. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the back row. "If you gentlemen think yourselves to be above this excercise, please, let us go outside."

The smiles on their faces vanished and were replaced with expressions of fear. "Master, we-" one of them started to say before the older man silenced him with a swipe of his hand. "Outside." he repeated. As the three men trudged outside, Jeong-jeong beckoned me to follow him, a almost-sadistic smile gracing his aging face. "The rest of you continue the excerise without me. Repeat it ten times." He addressed the rest of the rebels sitting quietly.

I got up and I followed him outside. Against the fragile beauty of the sky, and the clear ripples of the lake, these three husks of men were shaking violently.

"Now-" Jeong-jeong said, turning towards me. "Which one would you like to fight first, Nini?"

"Please sir, don't make us-" Jeong-jeong glared at the man. "Nini will only have to fight two of you to make an example, so if you're lucky, maybe she won't pick you."

I surveyed the three rebels. "I'll take the one in the middle first, Boss."

Jeong-jeong nodded. "Very well. Start now."

The man in the middle came forward, pulling out a sword but still shaking. I smirked, bending down, before springing towards him. In a flash of metal and fire, he was on the ground and I was on top, a dagger pressed to his throat. "Dead." I said simply, rolling off of him.

I finished with the other rebel just as fast. I didn't pick the one who had tried to refuse Jeong-jeong's orders in the first place, I wanted some kind of a fight. He was going to surrender immediatly - I could see it.

Jeong-jeong started to clap. "Nicely done, Nini. I hope this lesson will teach you that since Nini can do the excercise perfectly, she can also hilariously pin you perfectly. You are dismissed for today. Go relax."

The three men dragged themselves away from the lake, grumbling amongst themselves. Jeong-jeong walked up behind me and clapped me on the back softly. "You are doing very well for a firebender who didn't know how to fight." He remarked. "Many of the rebels here look up to you. If it wasn't for the mere coincidence a month ago when I found you performing with that circus-"

"Don't." I said. "I am done with that part of my life. After listening to what you want to achieve I am 100% on board with your plan. You have nothing like me returning to the circus to worry about. I'm definietly not going to do acrobatic tricks again."

Jeong-jeong smiled and patted me. "Good. Now go and take a break yourself." He turned and went back inside the hut where everyone else was still practicing the technique. I sat down on where I was and looked out onto the lake. It's tempting. I didn't know what happened to people who could bend two elements. So far I've been passing as a firebender, but at meal times I hear the whispers behind my back. They suspect I am an illigetimate child, one born of a water-tribe woman and fire nation man, or a fire nation woman and a water-tribe man.

I have made no friends. I am fifteen, sixteen soon, and yet no one will say hello to me, or ask how my day was, or even sit next to me during meal times. I am alone in the world of elements. I am a lost dualbender. Like I have done every night of my life since my banishment from the South Pole, I bury my face in my arms and I cry.

After a while, I am interuptted by the running feet of some men. I turn around. Through my tears I can see the men are excited about something. "What is going on?" I get up and go towards a small group clustered together. "Are we under attack?"

"No." One of the men says. "Chey has found the Avatar."

My eyes widen. "What?" I scoff. "There's no way."

"It's true." The man continued. "Apparently the Avatar exposed his airbending at the festival in town. Chey has brought him and some friends to see Jeong-Jeong."

I turned away from the small group and headed to Jeong-Jeong's hut. "Are you going to teach him when he arrives?" I said, going inside without knocking.

Jeong-Jeong had his back towards me, apparently in deep meditation. "I do not know." He replied after a while. "If he has the understanding of fire, perhaps. But he need to learn waterbending, then earthbending, before finally learning firebending. There is nothing I can teach him now at this point"

"Is he really a boy?"

Jeong-Jeong sighed. "I do not know, Nini. He will be arriving soon with his friends - you can see with your own eyes."

I bowed and exited the hut. I was now determined to seek out the Avatar. I hoped that he was not a boy but rather an experienced master - maybe the monks had taught him something about people who have dueled with two elements rather than one. I want to know why only I have been 'blessed' with two elements, and if it is safe for me to declare myself so.

I suddenly felt the large footsteps of a gigantic beast rumble in the ground and I froze mid-step.

**the excercise they're doing is like a pre-fighting technique...I didn't want to go too much into it. **

**So here we are! I just 'finished' Blood Basket and now I'm bringing you another story, mainly OC (Nini) but I am keeping the original couple of Aang and Katara so that's who I put under the couplings. I will end the series with the end of Book 1, but if you want me to continue please say so and I will do so :) **

**Quick Review: **

**Nini is a member of the South Pole tribe. Her mother was a waterbender and her father was a firebender. She is a 'dualbender'. **

**So rate, review, comment, and stay awesome! :)**

**flamefield**


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